Amitabh Bachchan and Shweta Nanda's jewellery ad under fire!

An overwhelmed Amitabh Bachchan recently posted an ad, which marked the debut of his daughter Shweta Nanda Bachchan. It also was the first time father-daughter duo faced the cameras together. While the advert garnered a mix response, there is a section which is not quite happy with it. Hence, this Big B ad is under fire. And the ones creating a ruckus is a bank union. They have termed it disgusting and said that it aimed at creating distrust in the banking system.

Reportedly, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation, an organisation claiming to have membership of around 3,20,000 officers, threatened to sue Kalyan Jewellers accusing it of “casting aspersion and hurting the sentiments of millions of personnel” through the advertisement. AIBOC general secretary Soumya Datta alleged that the theme, tone and tenor of the ad were “disgusting, derogatory, to say the least and is aimed to create distrust in the banking system, for pure commercial gain.”

“We express our strong resentment against the management of Kalyan Jewellers and Mr Bachchan who have manifested a negative and false image of the Banks in the ad for their personal aggrandisement. We deem it as a case of defamation to all the banks as a whole,” he said.

On the other hand, Kalyan Jewellers have rejected the allegation, saying it was pure fiction. “We understand that your esteemed association feels that the bankers have been portrayed in bad light. We state it on record that it is a pure fiction and at no point we have intended to generalize the bank officers at large,” Kalyan jewellers said in a letter to Datta.

“Please accept our unconditional disclaimer for the same. We shall within three working days from today add characters and situations depicted are fictional. The brand does not intend to disrespect or malign any person or community’ before the advertisement,” they further added said.

Demanding an unconditional apology from the jewellery group, the AIBOC said if the advertisement was not withdrawn, suitable organisational action, including dharnas and litigation would be initiated. Abraham Shaji John, AIBOC’s Kerala unit secretary, also condemned the advertisement, saying it has defamed bank employees.